Recycling plastic in concrete

 I love to see when engineers can be more efficient and sustainable while still providing nearly as high of quality products. I hope that civil engineers continue to push for more sustainable design in both material and structure. I learned about the concept of plastic roads made from recycling materials a few years ago (pictured below) and thought it was awesome how it could reduce waste, shorten installation and shutdown time, provide practical drainage, and reduce heats effects with different color to in turn increase lifespan. I was disappointed to learn there's some issues right now, like with strength when semi's or heavy equipment use them, but there is some use of them starting in different areas. 

It is cool to hear that recylced plastic for use in structural concrete is a practical idea, and is being researched at Mines by Prof. Reza Heyadat and also at MIT - Students fortify concrete with plastic.